This invention relates to a method of producing restorations, prosthesis or the like within dentistry and medical service, a measuring device, a computer and a shaping machine being utilized.
According to common technique within dentistry when repairing the teeth the dentist after having drilled the tooth that shall be filled makes an impression of the tooth. Thereafter a model of the tooth is made in plaster, which is utilized by a dental technician as a model when waxing and moulding the restoration. This method is very troublesome and time-consuming and creates many sources of errors. Therefore, new methods of producing restorations and dentures within dentistry have lately began to be developed.
According to a method described in European Patent No. 0 054 785 there is previously known to make an optical reading of the form of the cavity of the tooth. This information is transmitted to a computer, a manual completion of the information being made. The computer controls a milling-machine which shapes a material, whereby a restoration is produced with a form which is similar to the form of the cavity. According to another method which is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,312 there is previously known to convey a probe around in the cavity of the tooth, the form of the cavity being detected. The information from the probe is transmitted to a shaping machine in a mechanical way, which prepares a restoration with a form which is similar to that of the cavity. None of these two methods, however, gives a satisfactory result but additional working is required.